iv Journal of CoMPARAinE NEUROLOciV. 



Graudrj's body, the nerve forms a flat disc-like plate. Those fibres 

 which extend to the epidermis pass to the epithelium and subdivide, 

 forming fine fibres Iving free in intercellular spaces. In muscles the 

 nerve fibres penetrate the substance and end in the branching muscle 

 plate. In unstriped fibres the nerve fibres are said to extend to their 

 nuclei, while the connection between sensory nerve and specific cell 

 seems to be a sort of splicing by intimate contact not involving actual 

 continuity. 



In respect to the fibres entering the central organ, the first clue was 

 given by the discovery of Cajal that the optic nerve fibres arising in the 

 retina terminate freely in the quadrigemina in the form of much 

 branched tufts. The sensory fibres entering the cord divide into an 

 ascending and descending branch, each of which sends collateral 

 ofi'-shoots into the gray matter of the two cornua, where they generally 

 embrace a nerve cell in a mesh-work without uniting with its processes. 



Cajal and KoelHker have shown that the protoplasmic processes of 

 medullated nerve fibres do not anastamose, but end in free stumps. In- 

 stead of the earlier notion of a nerve reticulinn that of a neuropilem is 

 suggested. The gray substance contains in the meshes of its reticulum 

 innumerable termini of nerve fibres and protoplasmic processes, which 

 are imbedded in a diffuse stroma which must constitute the means 

 of communication. The reaction will necessarily pursue the path of 

 least resistance. 



The Nervous System of the Gorilla. (') 



This beautiful quarto volume of 78 pages, with heliotype plates 

 of the nervous and vascular systems, is an important addition to the 

 rather meager anatomical data upon anthropoids. The following sum- 

 mary may serve to indicate the ditVerences between the peripheral 

 nervous system of the gorilla and of man, as well as to aft'ord a basis 

 for other comparisons. 



1. The facialis of the gorilla is more complicated than that of 

 the chimpanzee, but less so than that of the orang or of man. 



2. T\\Q iriossopharyiig-eiis of the left side forms a plexiform reticulum 

 and gives ofi' anastamosing fibres to the vagus and sympathetic, form- 

 ing nearly all the rami pharyngei. On the right side it anastamoses 

 with the hypoglossus and convej-s to it fibres of the vagus and sympa- 

 thetic. 



3. The r'ajr/is sends a depressor branch to the cardiac plexus from 

 either side. The internal branch of the right superior laryngeal is 

 divided, the upper part passing through the membrana thyrohyoidea, 

 the lower, in connection with the external branch, through a foramen 

 in the cartilage. The cardiac branch of the right side passes 



1. KisLKK, Paul. Das OefUss und periphore Neivensystem des Gorilla. Nine plates. 

 Halle a. S. 'lauschc und Grosse, 1890. 



